Page 57 of Wrangled Up

She dipped the spoon into the sauce with a shaky hand and held it out.

Tucker folded his muscular body into a crouch inches away from her. His soap and water and pine scents chased each other around her head. His familiar angular jaw, straight nose and bright eyes loomed close. So damn close.

She tightened her grip on the spoon, but her hand surged up and down with nerves.

Tucker wrapped his fingers around hers to hold her hand steady. Then he leaned in and parted his firm lips to accept a taste of the sauce.

She shuddered, her pussy instantly wet. But it was the heartstrings plucking a crazy hoedown that nearly made her fall off her stool.

“Not scorched a bit.” When he spoke, silver flashed under his lower lip, along withhis dimple. She looked hard to see a labret piercing hidden in his dirty beard.

As if seeing him for the first time, her scope of vision widened and she drank in his entire appearance. He’d cut his hair. No longer did the warm brown ends brush his shoulders. Instead, it curled up from under the brim of his black Larry Mahan cowboy hat.

His shirt was open at the throat, exposing the tanned flesh she’d dreamed of each night since he left weeks ago. She snapped her free fingers into a fist to keep from reaching for him.

“Let me at that sauce, girl. You go and take a break.” Letty removed the spoon from her hand.

Still, she sat in shock, staring at Tucker. He dropped his gaze to her mouth and stared at it for a full minute before lifting his eyes.

A flurry of motion behind Tucker drew her attention to Christian. He spit out his chew and jammed a breath mint he always carried into his mouth. Then he spun on his heel and strode toward the house.

Her heart turned over. She jumped to her feet, skirted Letty and Tucker and broke toward the house with Tucker on her heels.

“You aren’t glad to see me.” Tucker’s voice burned with pain and accusation.

She shook her head hard. How could he believe that? She and Christian had suffered daily while he was gone.

But she couldn’t force the words past her frozen lips, because Christian’s rod-straight back was disappearing into the house.

“Chris!” She launched herself up the stairs after him and ran into the cool recesses of the house. Tucker slammed the door behind them all.

Christian whirled, fists clenched, a vein pulsing in his throat. “Where the hell do you get off, Langley?”

Tucker widened his stance and hitched his thumb in his jeans pocket. “You mean by returning home—tomyranch?”

“Oh, that’s dirty. A man walks—no runs—away from everything he has, leaving two people to pick up his slack, and then he acts as if we’re stepping on his toes.”

“That’s what this is about? You’re pissed off because you had to water a few horses?”

Christian’s face mottled red then interspersed with alarming purple. Clairementally bounced between the men. Every cell of her being strained to touch Tucker. To put her arms around him, bury her face against his delicious throat and inhale him.

But the fathomless struggle in Christian’s eyes drew her to him.

With a jerk, Christian closed the gap between Tucker and himself. He butted a blunt finger into Tucker’s chest, rocking him on his heels. “A few horses? How about all the particulars of running this ranch, such as how to find a way to purchase feed or cure a case of hoof rot?”

Tucker’s face blanched. “I wired you money… You didn’t use it? You stubborn ass. How is that my fault?”

“I didn’t want your guilt money. I take care of my own. I don’t run.” Christian glared at him.

For several heartbeats, Claire held her breath.

“I was trying to be nice,” Tucker grated out.

“Would have been nicer of you to keep your goddamn relatives from threatening us.”

“Leon and Dale?” His voice strained, as if he’d gulped down some barbed wire, not spaghetti sauce.

“That’s right. We never know where they’ll pop up next, but it seems they have me and Claire pinned down right nice. See, they think we’re squatting on your land with thoughts of stealing something. If I don’t keep Claire in my sights at all times, I’m afraid of what they might do or say to her!”

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